Three-dimensional structure and its spatial developmental patterns of trees and forests are important in that it can provide much information about biological processes such as intra-and inter-specific competition and productivity of trees and forests. The objectives of this project are to develop non-destructive methods of measuring three-dimensional structure of foliage, branches, trees and forests, and to clarify significance of the three-dimensional structure and its developmental patterns on dynamics of forests, with special reference to growth and survival of trees, processes of intra-and inter-tree competition, and so on. Computer simulation was also deployed to pursue the issue.Several major topics of the project results are as follows.1) The spatial patterns of branching of a community-grown hardwood tree species were affected by both spatial relationship with neighboring trees and presence of the slope, which results agreed with results expected by a two-dimensional spatial m
… Moreodel simulating development of tree structure.2) Shoot behavior did not always depend solely on the local light environment, but also on the light environment of the individual crown as a whole. Such a "correlative inhibition" process (the enhanced mortality and reduced production of new shaded shoots in the presence of partially-sunlit shoots in the same crown) was introduced into a computer simulation modeling three-dimensional development of trees.3) Fractal dimension of crowns that characterizes spatial patterns of foliage distribution in forest canopies was found to be closely related to the value of the selfthinning exponent in dense monocultures of trees.4) Through a simulation producing various types of foliage distribution in the canopy by the Markov process, the relationship between the number of the component of forest canopy and spatial distribution patterns of foliage clarified. The result serves for analyzing results of the improved laser plane range-finding method, a non-destructive method of measuring canopy structure. Less